A few weeks ago, Mark Fields, the former CEO of Ford Motor Company, during an interview on CNBC, said that the “moment of truth” for electric vehicles was arriving. Fields, who headed the Dearborn-based automaker from 2014 to 2017, said that “it’s harder for consumers to charge your vehicle than to fill up a tank of gas right now, and that’s weighing heavily.”

On Thursday afternoon, Fields’s prediction was confirmed when Ford reported a $1.08 billion operating loss on its EV business during the second quarter. During that span, Ford sold 14,843 EVs. That means Ford lost about $72,762 for each EV it sold. That’s an even bigger loss than what the company saw during the first quarter and they portend even bigger losses ahead. Ford lost $2.1 billion in its EV business in 2022. And as I explained here in May:

Ford’s 2022 losses were only a warm-up lap. Yesterday afternoon, Ford reported a $722 million loss on its EV business over the first three months of 2023. During that span, Ford sold 10,866 EVs, meaning it lost $66,446 for every EV it sold. For perspective, Ford lost the equivalent of a brand-new Mercedes-Benz E-class sedan on every EV it sold during the first quarter. (An E 450 4Matic has an MSRP of $66,700.)

During the second quarter, the company’s per-unit EV losses jumped by another $6,316. But the bad news at Ford isn’t limited to the fact that it’s losing scandalous amounts of money on its EVs. Ford is also predicting even bigger losses ahead and its EV sales are falling at the very moment the company is spending $50 billion to dramatically expand its EV production.